DFS Director Biography

Sarah Azevedo, DFS Director

Sarah Azevedo graduated from the University of Delaware in 1998 with a Bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice and began her career with the Division of Family Services in 1999. During her tenure with DFS, she has worked in multiple program areas, including investigation, treatment, and APPLA, gaining substantial case management experience with the adolescent population. In 2011, she transitioned to supervise the Northern New Castle County Adolescent Investigation Unit where she was instrumental in developing and piloting Delaware’s first Differential Response program, known as Family Assessment and Intervention Response (FAIR). This innovative program was among the first of its kind in the nation, and Ms. Azevedo had the opportunity to provide technical assistance to a jurisdiction in Florida and to present the Delaware FAIR model at the National Differential Response Conference in Vail, Colorado, in 2013.

In 2019, Ms. Azevedo joined the DFS administration as the Intake and Investigation Program Manager. In this role, she managed the statewide intake and investigation program and served as a subject matter expert for the agency, representing DFS on multiple statewide committees and workgroups. Since 2019, she has served as the DFS representative on the legislatively mandated Child Abuse and Neglect (CAN) Panel, which is authorized by the Child Protection Accountability Commission (CPAC) to review the multidisciplinary team response to all child death and near-death incidents in Delaware. In this role, she consults with other members of the multidisciplinary team (MDT), reports on DFS’s strengths and findings, and uses panel findings to enhance DFS practices. Between 2020 and 2023, Ms. Azevedo represented DFS on the CPAC Child Sex Abuse Committee and was appointed co-chair of the MDT Response subcommittee in 2021. Due to her contributions to the Delaware MDT, she was asked to present at the Beau Biden Foundation: Protecting America’s Children Conference, held in Washington, D.C. in 2023. Additionally, she has served as the DFS representative on the CPAC CAN Best Practices Workgroup since 2019 and was appointed co-chair in 2026. She has served on the panel of the legislatively mandated CPAC Juvenile Trafficking Oversight Team (JTOT) since its inception in 2022 and was appointed to the Child Advocacy Center Advisory Committee in 2026.

Ms. Azevedo is deeply committed not only to ensuring an effective response to child abuse and neglect but also to preventing it. In 2024, she initiated a pilot program in collaboration with Prevent Child Abuse Delaware to provide primary prevention services to families in Delaware. This pilot program, known as “Pathway One,” is the first of its kind in the state, aiming to divert families and children from DFS involvement by addressing stress factors that may lead to future abuse or neglect.

In October 2025, Ms. Azevedo was appointed Deputy Director of DFS. In this role she continues to represent DFS on various statewide workgroups and committees, providing operational oversight of the agency, overseeing administration of the operating budget, and liaising with external stakeholders, including law enforcement, Family Court, CPAC, Delaware General Assembly, the Departments of Justice and Education, and the medical community.

Ms. Azevedo completed the State of Delaware Continuous Improvement Practitioner Program (CIP) in February 2025 and is currently working towards completing the Process and Project Leadership Program (PPL). She is a member of the statewide GEAR Field Team and is committed to improving processes and efficiencies within state government.